Member Avatar for johnpote

Hi everyone,
When I click the Search button in windows explorer the folders pane (on the left) is replaced with the search pane. This has a title bar "Search companion" at the top with a close pane 'x' button on the right (which works). Saddly that's all I get. The rest of the pane (underneath the title bar) is a plain blue colour with none of the search options, buttons, text entry boxes. Nothing, just the blue.

HOWEVER, if I log in to my 'administrator' account then the search pane comes up as normal. My normal user account is a limited account.

I guess something has got messed in the registry. Can anyone help sort this niggleing problem out. It would be much appreciated, I'd love to be able to search my own disk again!

OS is Win XP home with all updates.

Regards,
John

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The symptom described by — Search Companion shows the title bar but a plain blue pane for non‑admin accounts while the Administrator account works — points to a user‑context failure: either per‑user registry entries, per‑user ACLs preventing Explorer/IE from loading the HTML UI, or IE/network settings that block the content. Earlier suggestions to scan for malware and to repair system files were sensible first steps; the next move is a targeted trace to see what Explorer actually fails to load. (itprotoday.com)

A reliable diagnostic is to capture Explorer’s file and registry activity with Process Monitor (Sysinternals). Run ProcMon as an administrator, set a filter for Process Name is explorer.exe, clear the log, reproduce the blank search pane, then stop and inspect for Result values like NAME NOT FOUND or ACCESS DENIED against files (srchasst, srchui/srchctls, related DLLs) and registry keys (HKCU overlays used by the Search Assistant). The exact culprit (missing file vs permission denied vs bad registry lookup) will show up clearly. (learn.microsoft.com)

Typical interpretations and next steps: NAME NOT FOUND signals missing files (restore from backup or the source media); ACCESS DENIED signals broken file/registry ACLs — a situation that SubInACL or similar tools are commonly used to repair on legacy XP systems (backup + restore point before running). The generic regsvr32 0x80004005 failure often means a registration/access or dependency problem rather than a UI bug, so capture the failing registry writes/reads with ProcMon before re‑registering components. (support.microsoft.com)

Complementary checks that sometimes reveal the cause: verify the hosts file and IE/LAN proxy settings (malware or a proxy can prevent the assistant’s web/HTML content from loading), and reset IE’s advanced settings (Active scripting and related options) if they’ve been hardened by security tools. As a practical fallback, restoring the classic Explorer search UI avoids the Search Companion HTML path; a small .reg file that forces classic search is shown below (log off and back on after applying):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState]
"Use Search Asst"="no"

Document findings from ProcMon (the exact files/keys and any ACCESS DENIED lines) before major remediation. For registry/ACL repairs, a full backup and a restore point are essential; if malware is suspected, complete scans with up‑to‑date tools should be completed first. (support.microsoft.com)

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Member Avatar for seanmsiegel

I have seen this before and it seemed to be the work of spyware\malware. I would suggest scanning your system if you havent.

Here is a fix that has worked for me.

good luck

Member Avatar for Tezdoll

I concure with seanmsiegel. This problem usually occured after running adaware/spybot and you actually pulled some system files out. A fix that has always worked for me is doing a system repair. Boot of the windows cd, and do not do the first repair (to command line) do the second repair.

Member Avatar for seanmsiegel

I concure with seanmsiegel. This problem usually occured after running adaware/spybot and you actually pulled some system files out. A fix that has always worked for me is doing a system repair. Boot of the windows cd, and do not do the first repair (to command line) do the second repair.

Thats a little drastic for such a small problem. I repaired this issue many times with this solution

The down side to doing a repair install is you lose all your windows updates and will have to reinstall them all.

Member Avatar for Tezdoll

Thats a little drastic for such a small problem. I repaired this issue many times with this solution

The down side to doing a repair install is you lose all your windows updates and will have to reinstall them all.

As stated in my earlier post, it was when the files were gone, not unregistered. The spyware/adaware actually infected some system files to force the search bar to go to "bad" websites instead of the MSN search / windows desktop search. When the adaware program removed them it ended up removing system files. Hence it was just easier to do a system repair. Not to say your solution will not work, i actually hope it does, system repairs can take a while and as you said all those downloads :(

Member Avatar for seanmsiegel

As stated in my earlier post, it was when the files were gone, not unregistered. The spyware/adaware actually infected some system files to force the search bar to go to "bad" websites instead of the MSN search / windows desktop search. When the adaware program removed them it ended up removing system files. Hence it was just easier to do a system repair. Not to say your solution will not work, i actually hope it does, system repairs can take a while and as you said all those downloads :(

Yeah thats true. I just havent ran into a instance where the files were missing or corrupted. I think a system file check "sfc /scannow" from command line can help to fix\restore certain files that needed attention and might be quicker than a repair install.

But when using sfc it asks for your xp cd so then again you may have to reinstall some updates on certain instances, Im not 100% sure.

Member Avatar for johnpote

Thanks for all the ideas and comments everyone. Have tried a few of them but to no avail yet.
Tried Microsofts Q831430 methods to reregister jscript.dll and vbscript.dll. This worked without a hitch from my administrator account but failed from my user account even when I changed its type from limited to admin. Error msg was "DllRegisterServer in jscript.dll failed. Return code was: 80004005". same for vbscript.dll. searched microsoft's kb but could not find any explanation of 80004005. Then looked at the registry (method 2 in Q831430) and found the keys were as they should be. My problem still persisted.

Ran sfc, It finished without reporting anything. (although I left it running while I went for lunch - could have missed an error dialog if one auto closed after some time).

Could do a full repair but have lost XP release disks that came with my dell box. Think I lent them to someone!!

Tried creating a new user account. Now explorer still gives me a blue pane but with the doggy animation!

So all in all I still have the problem. My guess is it's a registry problem. Anyone know a good registry cleaner?

Thanks for all the help,
John

Member Avatar for seanmsiegel

Another windows file you could try to register is the windows scripting host ("regsvr32 wshom.ocx").

If this still doesnt fix the problem i have put together all the windows search assistant files from a clean install in the zip file below. After you download the file unzip it to a location and then right click on "srchasst.inf" and click install. If any prompts appear saying they cant find a file and want a path, then point it to the path of the files you just unzipped.

good luck.

Member Avatar for Tezdoll

I tend to stay away from "Registry Fixers" as they can do more damage than good. The windows CD's are free, its the licenses you pay for. Borrow somones :)

Member Avatar for seanmsiegel

I tend to stay away from "Registry Fixers" as they can do more damage than good. The windows CD's are free, its the licenses you pay for. Borrow somones :)

But make sure its the same version.. Home OEM, Home Retail, Pro OEM, Pro Retail are 4 different version. All through actually oem and retail are same, you cant do a repair install on one using the other. And of course your cd key would not work anyways.

Member Avatar for Tezdoll

Sorry, i tried to make a joke and seanmsiegel just killed it. :)

Your CD key on your case or where ever it is will only work with one type of CD. HOME/PRO oem sp1 sp2 retail cd.

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